Blockchain Scalability: Prospective Solutions for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other Blockchain Networks

Abstract

The problem of scalability of blockchain platforms has raised a considerable amount of attention in the recent months. With the rise of the use of blockchain platforms and the prices of various cryptocurrencies hitting an all-time high in December of 2017, blockchain has now entered the eyes of the general public. Often seen as the future of digital transactions and applications, the decentralized platform faces many struggles in building networks capable of supporting the vast number of financial transactions modern systems currently handle, let alone serving as a replacement for the client-server model of the Internet. This paper introduces the basic structure of blockchain platforms that exist today, introduces the scalability problem, and examines the solutions that developers have proposed or implemented.